The present invention relates to a protective needle cover, and more particularly to a protective needle cover having two pivotally connected side walls which can be turned relative to each other so that the protective needle cover is widely opened to accommodate a needle therein and the chances of the needle to dangerously stab an operator is reduced.
Injection by means of a syringe with a needle is one of a very important and necessary means in medical treatment. The needle for injection usually has a pointed end which shall very possibly threaten an operator or any other people involving in the use or disposal of such needle if it is not carefully and effectively handled in a safe manner. A minor danger possibly caused by a used needle is, for example, stabbing and hurting the operator. And, a serious danger includes, for example, giving the stabbed person an infectious disease by agency of the contaminated needle. In an age being threatened by AIDS, it is a very important thing and requires special care of any medical personnel to dispose the used and contaminated needle with an effective and safe way.
A conventional and widely adopted way of safely handling a needle is to cover the needle with a hard, cylindrical case. To use the needle, first remove the hard case from the needle from a top thereof. After the use of the needle is completed, the hare case is replace over the needle before the needle is discarded. Due to the thin and elongated body of the needle, the operator is frequently unexpectedly stabbed by the needle when the hard case is quickly replaced over the needle.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional safety needle cover A1 which mainly consists of a long tubular member formed of multiple continuous flexible segments and a rubber stopper A2 disposed at a front end of the tubular member A1. The flexible tubular member A1 is put around a needle A3 to prevent the latter from being exposed to the atmosphere and stabbing any person. In this safety needle cover, the rubber stopper A2 does not have any preformed hole on it when it is formed to be covered around a needle. However, when the needle covered by the tubular member A1 is to be used, the rubber stopper A2 is pierced through by the pointed tip of the needle A3 so that the needle A3 is exposed to the outside. In a similar manner, an outcoming force applied on the flexible tubular member A1 may also carelessly cause the needle A3 to pierce through the rubber stopper A2 and thereby causes any dangerous result. Moreover, it is necessary to use two hands when operating this safety needle cover A1, that is, one hand is used to hold a syringe A4 to which the needle A3 is connected while the other hand is used to squeeze the small rubber stopper A2 in front of the pointed end of the needle A3. This is of course dangerous to handle the needle and the safety needle cover in such a manner.
FIG. 2 illustrates another conventional safety needle cover comprising an outer sleeve B1, an inner sleeve B2, and an elastic cover B3. The outer sleeve B1 is cylinder-shaped and in a proper length. A hole is formed on a top surface of the outer sleeve B1 for a needle to pass therethrough.
The inner sleeve B2 has an opening formed on a top surface thereof. A circle of downward extended flange portion B4 is provided around a bottom side of the opening of the inner sleeve B2, such that a space is formed between the flange portion B4 and the peripheral side wall of the inner sleeve B2. The elastic cover B3 has proper tensility and is collapsed to a root portion of the needle before the needle is put to use. When the needle has been used, the sleeves B1 and B2 are pulled upward along the needle so that the tip of the needle is restricted to the space defined by the flange portion B4 and the side wall of the inner sleeve B2, as shown in FIG. 2.
In the conventional safety needle cover illustrated in FIG. 2, an existed disadvantage is that the outer sleeve B1 must be pushed forward with fingers and therefore, the fingers are easily subject to dangerous stabbing. Since the outer sleeve B1 has very small area, fingers squeezing it to extend it are easily carelessly stabbed and injured by the needle to be covered by the sleeves. Moreover, it is hard to assemble such a conventional needle cover and a higher manufacturing cost is required for forming it.